


A Shared Act

by Vector



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-15
Updated: 2007-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 18:35:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vector/pseuds/Vector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was easy to lose track of the hour, in the mines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shared Act

It was easy to lose track of the hour, in the mines. The first time they had emerged onto a span and realized the sky was pitch dark, their two sky pirates had made them turn around that moment.

Vaan had complained, inititally. "But it's probably only a little bit further—"

"It's always only a little bit further." Balthier rolled his eyes.

Fran elaborated, "If we continue much longer we shall all be spent before the return trek, and that is not a risk I am willing to take."

They had been right, of course. They had all been exhausted by the time they stumbled up the steps as it was.

That was the first time they had paid for multiple rooms in the Cloudborne, with a bed for each of them, because even Basch had been too tired to argue safety and thrift over comfort.

Tonight, though, they'd gotten out of the mines relatively early, and no one seemed to have the desire to attempt another run in the waning daylight. Now that they had their rooms and were awake enough to enjoy them, it felt like ridiculous decadence. Not to mention dangerous, as they all separated about various business. Still, even Ashe had seemed to approve of the respite.

"Our pockets are well filled, and there is little better way to spend it than rejuvenating ourselves. Do not let it bother you so."

Basch sat up from his bed to see Fran on the other side of the room. He hadn't heard her enter. Were it anyone else, that fact would be worrying.

"Am I that easily read?" He frowned.

"Your distress is easily predicted, perhaps." She moved closer, and Basch had to crane his neck from his seated. "Your unease is as easily foreseen as my partner's egress to the baths. The mines take their toll on each in their own way."

Basch looked away at the closed door. "I thought merely of our safety and finances, though you are right that the latter are likely adequate."

Fran was quiet for long enough that his gaze began to drift back towards her. His eyes landed about her navel for a moment, and then her fingers were under his chip, tipping his face to meet hers. She bent her fingers slightly so her claws only brushed at the skin of his neck, but her eyes were sharp and strange.

"I—thank you, nevertheless." Basch stuttered. "For the break from the mines, and for the conversation."

"More than conversation is possible, if you wish." Fran's lips curved slightly. Her hands slid back, claws scratching at his scalp and parting lines in his hair where it tucked behind his ears. She bent at the waist and leaned in towards him.

Somehow it was still a complete surprise when her lips pressed to his.

His body reacted instantly, as if to a need he hadn't known he'd been harboring. Heat rushed through him and settled low in his gut. His mind, on the other hand, refused to work at all. He didn't manage to recollect himself until Fran had already moved away.

"You would offer yourself to me for comfort?" He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, for his surprise made his tone somewhat less than complementary.

Something flared in Fran's eyes, more emotion in them than Basch had yet seen. Excepting on the _Leviathan_, which was hardly a comforting thought.

"I _offer _nothing."

Bare seconds after that statement Fran took his mouth again, harsher than any woman who had kissed him before. He could not help but return it. Something in him snapped, something that had been wound tight for days, anticipating their next descent into the darkness of the mines. The kiss forced the tension out, replaced it with confusion and want.

Basch's hands rose of their own accord, but he could find nowhere to settle them on Fran's body that did not seem indecent.

Fran decided the issue by moving closer, settling her knees on the bed on either side of his thighs, folding her long limbs gracefully. Basch's hands went automatically to the dip of her back, holding her steady. Her skin was warm and soft under his touch. As she settled into his lap, she had to be able to feel him hardening, and he flushed hot, equal parts arousal and embarrassment.

When she finally broke their kiss it left Basch dizzy.

"I offer nothing," She repeated, and Basch's head spun more at the breathiness of her voice. "Because this is not something which is given or taken. A terrible hume turn of phrase," she hummed against his ear, and Basch shuddered as her feathery hair brushed his shoulders. "It should not be but a shared act."

A moment passed as Basch breathed and attempted to summon words. "I can only be flattered you would share it with me, then."

Fran smiled then, truly. "It is hardly a hardship, Captain." Basch was slowly learning to identify the slight lilt of her voice that meant wry amusement. "I have wished to for quite a time, now."

That revelation quieted Basch, and he moved easily at Fran's prompting as she removed his upper garments. Once bare, she smoothed her palms across his chest and shoulders, then bit lightly at the edge of his jaw. It triggered a bolt of lust and a moan; she skimmed her claws over his stomach and the muscles twitched involuntarily.

Basch's splayed his fingers and ran them up Fran's back, feeling the contrast between the cool glossy armor and patches of her soft but firm, almost leather-like skin. He realized he had no idea how to remove any of her garments.

As if she knew the direction of his thoughts, Fran pulled away, the points of her heels finding purchase on the floor effortlessly.

"My accoutrement is best managed unaided; if you will see to yourself?" After a beat, Basch rose and set himself to his buckles.

He kept an eye on Fran; her bodysuit was undone with a few flicks of her fingers. Hidden hooks, then, or perhaps simply some breed of magic. After he stripped off completely, he found himself watching in admiration as she then moved to remove her helmet—mostly bare, he could see muscles flex and her breasts shift with the motion.

She looked different, like this. Oddly, most of the difference was seeing her head with her hair freed rather than her bare breasts or the neat triangle of short, pale hair at her groin. She looked pale and alien, and intensely alluring.

She still moved too smoothly for his instincts to track, and before he knew it she pushed at him—and he'd known she was strong, of course, but one never thought of it quite like this—and he fell back to seated on the bed.

She straddled him again, but now he felt it as her legs slid against his. Her skin felt slightly cooler than his, but he couldn't tell how much that was simply because his own burned like a brand. She hadn't removed all of her armor from her legs, but close-fitting and sleek as it was it provided little impediment, the raised pattern instead only adding another dimension to the sensation.

His hands rose again, settling atop her head and feeling through her hair to rub at the base of her ears. She made a glottal noise and turned her head, licking away a smudge of ash from his bicep.

Suddenly his need was overwhelming.

"Fran—" he started, but she shifted slightly to fix him with a glare, sliding against his leg. "Yes," he said instead, and reached down between them to press into her slick folds.

His strokes pushed a bit harder and with a bit less finesse than he intended, but Fran gasped and shuddered, and after a few seconds he felt her thighs flex and suddenly he was flat on his back and Fran's deft fingers were encircling his cock.

The world narrowed to just that feeling and the sight of her hand curved about him carefully as she rose above him. She settled into place and moved down onto him. As he felt his head touch her entrance he couldn't help the buck of his hips, and he slid fully into her in one motion.

"Ah," he said, and tried to assemble enough of himself for words. "My apol—"

Before he could finish she leaned down and took his mouth again, shifting around him as she moved.

"None of that," she said when she broke away, voice low and guttural.

She moved hard against him, and it brought him close to the edge embarrassingly quickly. He reached to rub again at the hard nub of flesh between her thighs, not even trying for delicacy this time. To his gratification, she was soon shuddering around him. She bore down on him as his hand moved away, and he lost himself in a rush of pleasure as light overwhelmed his vision.

When, a few minutes later, Fran shifted away, her muscles were quaking slightly. Basch forced himself upright with effort and opened his mouth to speak.

A clawed finger landed against his lips. "I expect it is time I availed myself of the baths." She tilted her head, her wild hair floating about. "Will you join me?"

Basch considered her. "Yes," he said eventually. "I believe I will."


End file.
